


Traded Light

by wildcursive



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Fix-It, M/M, but also includes spoilers for all of episode Ignis, ignoct discord daily prompt, loss and regaining of sight, mostly set in chapter 14
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-15
Updated: 2018-01-15
Packaged: 2019-03-05 02:00:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13377750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wildcursive/pseuds/wildcursive
Summary: Noctis' return comes with an unexpected consequence for Ignis.written for a daily prompt at the ignoct discord by @kirakanjo





	Traded Light

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, I'm back with more Ignoct. Thanks to @kirakanjo whose prompt was Noctis trading sight in one eye for Ignis to get his back and it was so intriguing that it kept me thinking all day until I figured out a possible scenario. Not betaed and it's stupidly late because I can't write fic at normal times so forgive the mistakes they are all mine and I hope you enjoy!

"The Light waxes full. Go forth-"

"Wait," Noctis interrupts. "I have a request."

The blinding white glare dies down back to the shimmering blue of the inside of the Crystal that he has grown so familiar with. Bahamut is hovering above him yet again and if it wasn't for the still features of his mask, Noctis would guess his expression would be harsh.

"The Chosen One's fate cannot be changed."

"Good that it’s not about my fate then," he responds. He has had a small eternity to consider this, the Draconian has to agree. "I am proposing a trade."

* * *

Ignis wakes up to the usual total darkness at what his phone informs him is 6am, while his hearing supplies that he is alone. He has overslept, he thinks, an inexplicable uneasiness settling in his chest as he gets up. It is like this more often than not these days, with a whole decade having passed since Noctis was taken into the Crystal. He should be returning any day now, Ignis somehow knows, just like he knows what fate the Astrals have in store for him as the King of Light.

Attempting to ignore the feeling, Ignis gets on with his morning routine, pulling on a clean shirt and pants and heading to the small bathroom to wash and style his hair, a decade of experience making his movements mechanical and absentminded as his thoughts drift back to his King. They are waiting in Hammerhead just as he said in his note.

Finally, he returns to the room putting on his jacket and gloves and lastly setting his visor on his nose. There are faint sounds coming from the next room.

“Hey, Iggy,” comes Prompto’s voice amid the slight clanking of what sounds very much like Cid’s old-as-time-itself coffee maker. That is not what draws Ignis’ attention however.

“Prompto,” he begins, trying to keep his voice from becoming too stern. He knows his friend must be feeling just as anxious about Noctis’ return, but they cannot allow themselves to spend electricity so carelessly. “I know you miss the light, probably even more now with how long Noct has been gone, but the Glaives worked tirelessly to supply electricity to the zone and we cannot waste it.”

“Yeah, of course, Iggy,” Prompto doesn’t sound upset by the reprimand, rather his voice has an amused tinge to it. “But I can’t make breakfast in complete darkness like you.”

“I am not talking about complete darkness, but you must have the artificial sunlight lamps lit in here if I can perceive the presence of light so clearly, even with the very limited photosensitivity I have left.” It is only in his right eye and he might as well not mention it, because the only other time light registered was when he shined a flashlight directly into his own face. Cindy has called him sunshine, but Prompto must be trying to emulate the solar surface itself, because while the light is muted, it is too obvious in comparison to his previous experiment and the darkness of the past decade. And it is getting brighter.

“I only have the one kitchen light on, Iggy, are you sure you are okay?” Prompto sounds confused now, much like Ignis is starting to feel.

“I… don’t-” he begins, tugging at his visor and taking it off.

The sound of it hitting the floor as it slips from his hand barely registers. His mind is too preoccupied with the blurry blond-haired shape he can see in the dim light of the kitchen space, the only one turned on, as Prompto said.

“Iggy?” He can see his lips moving to form his name.

“Prompto,” he sighs as his feet take him the short way to the counter on autopilot so he can get a better look at his friend.

His vision is still blurry, but this close he sees the other man’s face almost completely clearly, the blond mop still styled as he remembers it, the freckles, the blue eyes, but the features are more pronounced, the past decade visible in them.

“Please shave.”

Prompto is looking at him in stupefied awe.

“Sure, buddy,” he answers with a startled laugh. “But how?”

In any other situation Ignis would have supplied him with instructions on the needed tools and the technique of shaving, but he is stuck on the way he can see his friend’s face after all these years of darkness and the glow of the light reflected on the coffeemaker’s surface in his peripheral vision. It is all slightly offset with his left eye still shut and sightless, but he has never thought he would see anything but complete darkness ever again.

“I don’t know, but it must somehow be connected to Noct and-“

He is interrupted by the caravan’s front door being swung open violently and Gladio stumbling in shirtless with his phone held by his ear. He is not close enough for Ignis to look at his face properly, his short-sightedness must be back too, but he takes in the longer hair and the familiar shape of the tattoo curling over his friend’s arms.

“Let me talk to him,” Gladio barks out and Ignis’ heart stops. “Of course he does,” Gladio grumbles next and hangs up with a curt “Just hurry up, will you.”

Finally, he looks to the counter where Ignis and Prompto are.

“Noct’s back.”

Ignis knows. Ignis knew it somehow deep down when he woke up, he just hadn’t realized yet.

“I see,” he answers, feeling the corner of his lips lift up in a smile as he looks expectantly at Gladio, who has spotted his visor still lying on the floor.

Ignis doesn’t know how much time passes. They all sit down at the small table cradling cups of coffee in their hands, each visibly thrumming with anticipation. He gets a better look at Gladio, at the two scars still crisscrossing his now more haggard-looking face and at all the unfamiliar ones adorning his upper body. He sends him to put on a shirt and looks around some more before suddenly realizing there is one more face he needs to see before Noct’s as he rushes back to the bathroom.

The light comes on with a few uncertain flickers and Ignis is faced with his own reflection. The clean-shaven look seems to have been the right choice and the style of his hair fits as well as he expected when he chose it. The scars, however… Ghastly is one word he would describe them with, Ignis thinks. He has always known himself to be somewhat vain and knew that the scarring would mean the end of his relatively good looks, but even with Prompto’s honest description he did not imagine they looked this bad. Ignis remembers their cause, the single moment when the ring settled at the base of his finger is still clear in his memory even after a whole decade, if his mind has at least somehow muted the memory of the burning pain that engulfed him whole. He clenches his eyes shut as the remnants of it resurface.

“I would do it again,” he whispers to himself as the memory recedes and looks up at his reflection again. All the whispering that followed him anywhere he went the first couple of years seems well-warranted now at least.   

Next he looks at his now-seeing eye, rid of the milky-white paleness Prompto had described and back to its clear green. He will get to see Noctis again, he thinks as the tears that have been choking him up since he took off his visor finally spill. Ignis lets them flow instead of trying to swallow them down, hand pressing at his mouth so his sobs don’t alarm his friends.

“Iggy!” The urgent cry comes several minutes later as he is patting his face dry with a towel and checking for any remaining redness in his right eye.

The towel is dropped carelessly into the sink as he rushes out almost at a run to get to the others. Together they cross the short distance to the front of the diner where what he presumes is Talcott’s truck has stopped. The passenger door opens Ignis’ breath stills. He sees first the same tall boots, the same outfit Noct wore so often a decade ago and when he gets closer he takes in the longer hair, the beard adorning a more hollow-looking face, so reminiscent of his father’s now.

“You kept us waiting,” he murmurs finally lifting his gaze to look into the blue eyes he remembers as Noct places a warm hand on his shoulder.

And finds instead one blue and one milky-white looking back at him.

* * *

 

They get food from the diner and settle at the small table outside the caravan. Prompto is on his left with an endless stream of questions while Gladio on his right tells him about the past decade, but Ignis remains mostly silent across from him, supplying detail to Gladio’s stories, but not contributing with any himself. Instead he seems content to observe, his eye always trained on Noctis when he looks in his direction. With the food gone, the conversation seems to die down too.

“So, what’s the plan, buddy?” asks Prompto much more cheerfully than Noctis is sure he feels.

“Tomorrow we set out to Insomnia,” he responds and turns to Ignis, a request to be given some privacy with him on his lips.

“Great, cause Gladio and I had promised Talcott to go with him on his supply run today,” comes the answer before he manages to get the words out and Prompto pulls a slightly grumbling Gladio towards the diner in search of the boy.

He is finally alone with Ignis, whose right eye, now back to its beautiful green as he had noted with relief earlier, has still not left his face.

“Let’s go inside.”

They end up settled on the small table, chairs close and bodies turned slightly sideways, as if drawn closer on their own volition.

“What did you do, Noct?” Ignis asks and Noctis realizes he had been holding his breath only when it comes out of him in a sigh when he doesn’t hear the accusatory tone he was expecting.

“I… arranged a small trade.”  

“Your eye for mine?”

“Initially it was my sight for yours,” he replies and sees Ignis stiffen. “Yes, Bahamut also thought that would be too big of a disadvantage if I wanted to defeat Ardyn. Also, your left eye is apparently ‘beyond repair'.”

“But he agreed to this?”

“Not at first,” Noctis responds.

“You bartered with the Draconian?” Ignis responds disbelieving, but the look in his eye when it meets Noctis’ is sharp and insistent, pinning him to his seat.

“Yeah, you should’ve seen me, Specs. I channeled the royal persona so well, even better than when I was negotiating with the First Secretary,” he tries for levity, but Ignis’ gaze remains piercing.

“What did you say?” he asks.

“Why not allow me to do this when I won’t have any use for these eyes in a couple of days anyway, I asked.” It is the truth, if not the whole of it and Ignis's unrelenting look says he saw right through him.

“Yeah, he still wasn’t persuaded either,” Noctis continues with a sigh. “But I reminded him that a prophecy is not of much use without its Chosen One. I could let Ardyn run free and never face him or if I did I could just run straight into his blade.” _‘I would leave the world as it is rather than bring the dawn to everyone but him,’_ he had said, but Ignis does not need to know that, or rather Noctis cannot lay his heart bare in front of him by saying it.

Ignis’ stiff posture relaxes slightly and one corner of his mouth pulls into a smile.

“And he didn’t call your bluff,” he chuckles.

Correction. All cards on the table it is.

“It wasn’t a bluff.”

Noctis knows Ignis would be able to hear the sincerity in his voice even if he was still without his sight and maybe this would be easier if Ignis couldn’t look at him like he is, but he wills himself to keep his expression open and honest. Prompto and Gladio know how much they mean to him as brothers and while this wasn’t his plan, he is glad that Ignis too has learned the true extent of his feelings for him, before the end.

Ignis, who hasn’t said anything yet, whose eye is now closed, no longer looking at him. Noctis only has a moment to regret doing this now and not before they said their farewells, to have upset the dynamic of their group with his unwanted confession, before he registers the scrape of a chair’s legs and hands twining in his hair as Ignis’ lips descent upon his. He brings his hands up, gently cupping the other man's jaw, running his thumbs over sharp cheekbones, tracing the outline of the scar on Ignis’ left side.

They pull back, one seeing eye staring into its opposite.

“You are not going to die,” Ignis says with fierce determination leaning in to capture his lips again and Noctis believes him.

* * *

 

“Today, we walk tall together.”

They have worked for ten years in preparation for this day and as he hears Noctis say these words, Ignis is at peace. Even if his plan fails, they will be together until and at the very end. He ascends the Citadel’s steps keeping to his King’s right side.

They walk out in the same way, each in the other’s blind spot, but with their hands clasped this time. Soon they will have to worry about rebuilding, about the consequences of defying the Astrals themselves and Ignis knows he will eventually have to tell Noct the full story about the loss of his sight, but for now they turn to look at their two friends on their sides and then at each other, before lifting their heads up towards the horizon.

Towards the first rays of the rising sun.

**Author's Note:**

> I cannot not write fix-it fic. So here's a mashup of the original with the alternate verse ending, because if Ignis defied fate in verse2, why not do it in the original too? Comments and kudos are always appreciated and as usual I'm on tumblr [@aro-hawke](http://aro-hawke.tumblr.com/).


End file.
